These current affairs are written in a easy to remember format and are useful for competitive exams like - UPSC Civil Services, UPPSC, BPSC, MPPPSC, State PSCs and other competitive examinations.
Ebola : symptoms, transmission, prevention and treatment
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) officially declared the end of the 12th Ebola outbreak, which killed six people. Another outbreak in the western province of Ecuador infected 130 people and killed 55 between June and November 2020.
Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) or Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever of humans and other primates caused by ebolaviruses.
Read More: Ebola
Science & Tech
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
The Manipur High Court allowed seven Myanmar nationals, who entered India secretly following the February military coup, to travel to New Delhi to seek protection from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Though India is not a party to the UN Refugee Conventions, the court observed that the country is a party to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966.
Read More: UNHCR
International Relations
Asian Development Bank (ADB)
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), headquartered in Manila, Philippines, is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966
The bank admits the members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and non-regional developed countries.
Started with 31 members at its establishment, ADB now has 68 members, 49 from within Asia, India is a founding member.
Asian Development Bank (ADB)'s five largest shareholders are Japan and the United States (each with 15.6% of total shares), the People's Republic of China (6.4%), India (6.3%), and Australia (5.8%).
The aim of the ADB is social development by reducing poverty in the Asia Pacific with inclusive growth, sustainable growth, and regional integration. This is carried out through an 80% investment in the public sector.
It is modeled closely on the World Bank, and has a similar weighted voting system where votes are distributed in proportion with members' capital subscriptions.
Economy
SUTRA (Susceptible, Undetected, Tested (positive), and Removed Approach)
Many scientists are blaming SUTRA for having a larger role in creating the perception that a second wave of Covid was unlikely in India.
SUTRA (Susceptible, Undetected, Tested (positive), and Removed Approach) is a government-backed model to forecast the rise and ebb of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scientists from the IIT Kanpur and IIT Hyderabad have applied the SUTRA Model to predict the Covid graph in India.
The model uses three main parameters to predict the course of the pandemic which are :
Beta: Also called contact rate, which measures how many people an infected person infects per day.
Reach: It is a measure of the exposure level of the population to the pandemic.
Epsilon: It is the ratio of detected and undetected cases.
It first came into public attention when one of its expert members announced that India was "past its peak".
Science & Tech